Microsoft loses in Eolas patent ruling

Iria · Sep 29, 2005, 09:50 PM

Striking a blow to Microsoft, the U.S. Patent Office this week reaffirmed a key Web-browsing patent that the software maker is accused of infringing.

In a decision made public Wednesday, the patent office upheld the validity of a patent held by the University of California and its Eolas Technology spinoff. In 2003, a jury awarded more than $500 million in damages to the university and Eolas, but an appeals court this year partially upheld Microsoft's appeal, saying the company should be able to present evidence that similar inventions predated Eolas' patent application.
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Read More / Source: News.com

Matth · Sep 30, 2005, 04:24 PM

A bad day!

Surely in all the extending of HTML, with browser specific tags, the idea that a tag and it's contents be processed by another application should not even be considered worthy of patenting in the first place.

The idea of a web page linked to a flash applet, also seems to be conceptually identical to a Windows Write document with an embedded and editable BMP image.

Sep 29, 2005, 09:50 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Microsoft loses in Eolas patent ruling Striking a blow to Microsoft, the U.S. Patent Office this week reaffirmed a key Web-browsing patent that the software maker is accused of infringing. In a decision made public Wednesday, the patent office upheld the validity of a patent held by the University of California and its Eolas Technology spinoff. In 2003, a jury awarded more than $500 million in damages to the university and Eolas, but an appeals court this year partially upheld Microsoft's appeal, saying the company should be able to present evidence that similar inventions predated Eolas' patent application. __________ Read More / Source: News.com

Sep 30, 2005, 04:24 PM	#2
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	A bad day! Surely in all the extending of HTML, with browser specific tags, the idea that a tag and it's contents be processed by another application should not even be considered worthy of patenting in the first place. The idea of a web page linked to a flash applet, also seems to be conceptually identical to a Windows Write document with an embedded and editable BMP image.